Journeyman Journal – Finish

One of the aspects of a time for everything under the heavens is that there is a time for things to finish.

Great meals finish. Brilliant books come to an end. Superb movies close. Heart-moving songs reach their finale. Sweet conversations conclude. Sad though it is there’s something fitting about the end of things.

As well as the issue of timing, I notice that there are times when people don’t know when things should finish. Take sports for example. It’s really sad seeing sportsmen who excelled in their area reaching heights never experienced but found it very difficult to know when to quit and so went through humiliation after humiliation until physical fatigue and the setbacks become too much to ignore and their end tarnishes their legacy. All that could have been avoided if they heeded the signs and progressed from active competition gracefully. They could wind down their career whilst championing the efforts of others as they transition to the next chapter of their lives.

It’s not just in sport that the hint is missed. There are times in life when a season for something good reaches its conclusion. Holding on to the relics of the old days in faint hopes that they will hold the same magic, tragically misuses the valuable gift of time missing the next chapter of life and staying in a chapter that had finished quite a while ago.

I love history and the lessons to learn from it. Among them I want to learn when the season has reached its conclusion. I want to learn to celebrate all the blessings of that and treasure the precious memories in them. I want to learn to do that and then move on to the next chapter.

It’s a hallmark of the mission of Jesus that He knew when it was finished.